Easily the funniest film I saw all year. But not only that, it's also a wonderfully scripted, acted, and astonishingly detailed picture that makes the familiar sounding Trading Places premise, a fresh and at times, even a surprisingly moving experience. 9

A sprawling tale of remarkable depth, centered on a working class matriarchal family from the slums of Lisbon. It features innovative direction and a cast of beautifully sculpted characters that transcends this from its melodramatic core, to provide one of the most powerfully absorbing films of the year.8

An inventively playful meta homage to 70's Italian horror, punctuated with outstanding sound design, a clever and bewildering screenplay, and gorgeous cinematography. All coming together to form an intense atmospheric feast for the ears and eyes. Might we be witnessing the birth of Il Nuovo Giallo?7

A chilling story, told with astonishing craft. Mads Mikkelsen delivers a marvelous performance as always, and Thomas Vinterberg returns to form with subtle and steady direction that turns this familiar tale into a genuinely terrifying and emotionally harrowing watch.6

A triumph of uncompromising style and storytelling. It succeeds despite its excessive length and unusual premise, thanks to some beautifully written, and remarkably acted main characters, as well as an abundance of truly extraordinary visual flourishes.5

A mesmerizing love letter to classic European silent cinema, told with an evocative array of stunning images, carefully crafted ambient soundscapes, and a wonderfully experimental story structure. Quite simply, a film lover's film.4

A masterful example of low-key drama, and a fascinating window back into 1980's East Germany unlike any other. Petzold's direction is marked by cool restraint and amazing attention to detail, but the film is carried by an exquisite lead performance of simmering intensity from Nina Hoss.3

A pitch black fairy-tale set amidst the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster. The always audacious Sono takes advantage of the heartbreaking backdrop to crank up the dial even further, and the results are an utterly disturbing yet profoundly uplifting display of raw human emotion.2

The Romanian master returns with an unparalleled demonstration of carefully honed atmosphere, writing, and direction. Everything comes together with an elegant precision that is impressive to behold; and it's topped off with a pair of unforgettable debut performances from its lead actresses.1

A wildly outrageous, unpredictable, and unexplainable Parisian limousine ride, that captures and evokes the pure creative spirit and thrilling excitement of cinema like no other film this year. Plus, Denis Lavant's utterly magical shape-shifting performance is one that will be talked about for many years to come.

Finally, here are some other foreign titles that premiered internationally in 2012 that I haven't seen, but hope to catch up with in the coming months:

After Lucia (Después de Lucía) by Michel Franco

The Almost Man (Mer eller mindre mann) by Martin Lund

Betrayal (Izmena) by Kirill Serebrennikov

Blancanieves by Pablo Berger

Camille Rewinds (Camille redouble) by Noémie Lvovsky

The Delay (La Demora) by Rodrigo Plá

Fill the Void (Lemale et ha'halal) by Rama Burshtein

The Girl From Nowhere (La fille de nulle part) by Jean-Claude Brisseau

House with a Turret (Dom s bashenkoy) by Eva Neymann

In the Fog (V tumane) by Sergei Loznitsa

The Last Step (Peleh akhar) by Ali Mosaffa

The Last Supper (Wáng Dè Shèng Yàn) by Lu Chuan

Outrage Beyond (Autoreiji: Beyondo) by Takeshi Kitano

Paradise: Faith (Paradies: Glaube) by Ulrich Seidel

Post Tenebras Lux by Carlos Reygadas

Vanishing Waves (Aurora) by Kristina Buozyte

So, what do you think of my choices this year? How many have you seen? Which deserving films did I miss? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

I've only seen The Hunt and Amour out if all these. The Hunt is probably my second favourite film of the year. Desperate to see Holy Motors and Berberian Sound Studio. Will have to check out Himizu too I think. Interesting list! Lots for me to look out for!

I have just spent an incredibly intense but thrilling THRILLING weekend in a cinema philosophy workshop and the buzz was around Holy Motors. I'm not a fan of "lists" ... But any list with that film as #1 is worth it.

Gah, I haven't even seen a single one of the honorable mentions, and I'm -just- half way through last years list. I DO thank you for putting this up though, I get to bookmark and check up on it every few months. It helps.

That workshop sounds fascinating. I hope you're going to blog about it. and honestly I'm really not a fan of lists either, but they are popular reads, and some of these titles really deserve the added exposure.

I cannot disagree with your number one choice. It was an amazing experience and for a change, the actual matched the hype and lavish praise from reviews. A nice strong list overall there, some new stuff for me to check out too.

I was expecting Holy Motors to be no 1! I've been reading positive things about Tabu & B Sound Studio, on you site too, so curious to give those a watch once both hit dvd soon, and maybe include them on my own upcoming 2012 list. Have you seen Ship of Theseus (2012)? it features on a few year-end top 10 lists in sight & sound mag, though 4.7 on IMDB has me confused...Fom what I can read, it's a flawed, ambitious Indian independent film. The trailer for it looks interesting.

Yeah, films almost never live up to their critical hype, and I was afraid that might happen with Holy Motors, but it held up and then some. Thanks for the comment Steven, I hope you discover something you like.

Thanks Alex. I still have my reservations about some of Audiard's storytelling methods, but I recently watched R&B again, and the performances, as well as the technical film-craft are just so amazing to watch, that I think it deserves a place here.

Yeah, there won't be any real surprises in the list if you are a regular reader. Actually I haven't even heard of Ship of Theseus... haven't had time yet to scour through the S&S lists, but it sounds intriguing. I'll add it to my list of films to watch out for. 4.7 is pretty low, but I trust IMDb's scores even less than I trust the daily horoscope.

Terrific list. BSS, The Hunt and Holy Motors (#1) also made my end-of-year list. I am really looking forward to catching Laurence Anyways, Barbara and Beyond The Hills, three I unfortunately missed throughout the year.

Really puts me to shame, but then I'm not even sure where I might see these movies in Perth. I did however watch 76 Hollywood movies from 2012. Dumb. I'm very happy to see Amour not in your top 10 however.

Well, hopefully some of these will play at your local film fest. Yeah I didn't fall for Amour as much as most. It's a very good film, but at this point in time I'm not even sure if it would even crack my Haneke top 10.

Can't wait to see all of these movies! The Hunt has been on my mind since Cannes... and I'm so ashamed I didn't watch Barbara because I thought it looked dull. Anyway, interesting you don't have any Oscar nominations here - but then again, I'm quite disappointed by them this year (haven't seen any of the foreign ones yet though).

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